The Los Angeles Lakers have been able to leverage their status as the preeminent team in one of the NBA's biggest markets into decades of consistent success. So why haven't the New York Knicks been able to do the same?

In practice, the NBA's Coach of the Year award mostly seems to be determined by which team most exceeds expectations. In setting those expectations based on past player performance, Neil finds an unlikely leader on the Bayou.

After Mavericks owner Mark Cuban declared there were hundreds of "Lenny Cookes," a look at the players who declared early entry out of high school or after one season in college and failed to establish themselves in the NBA shows they always faced long odds of making it.

Neil Paine uses the average performance of past NBA rookies by draft position to estimate Kentucky's chances of beating an NBA team and finds that the Wildcats would be on relatively even footing with the league's worst.

Despite the prolific duo of Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, the Knicks have been no better than average on offense this season against a weak schedule. Neil Paine points the finger at the team's poor playmaking.

Because of their simplicity of use, we'll probably never get completely away from adding up the good stuff and subtracting the bad stuff. Neil takes a look at some of these time-tested player rating formulas to determine which one rises above the pack.